Friday, February 12, 2016

Consider this quote from Irish aviation executive Willie
Walsh talking about the boss of a competing airline, Virgin's Richard Branson.
"I don't like him, I don't admire him, I don't buy his bullshit." Or
consider Michael O'Leary of Ireland's Ryanair, "I don't give a shit
if no one likes me. I'm not a cloud bunny or an aerosexual. I don't like
aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who
populate the airline industry."

The world of aviation is full of arrogant, combative
individuals who may be providing a service to a world growing ever more reliant
on air travel. But they are at the same time helping the industry’s descent to
ever-lower levels of respect.

Then consider Nick Tramontano, who, along with his long-time friend, retired Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino, died in a crash on Feb 5th in Arizona. He was a class act.

Called the “Mayor” of Connecticut’s Oxford Waterbury Airport
by the airport’s actual manager, Matthew Kelly, no one has anything but nice
things to say about Nick.

“He was wonderful,” Kelly told me. “You always left a conversation
with him, with a smile.”

Thursday, February 11, 2016

The public has sporadic interest in air travel news; seat size and ticket prices get attention, as do stories of badly-behaving flight attendants. But two issues being debated in Washington deserve some
thought for their significance as safety issues with wide-reaching
impact.